Exceedingly long load times!

Neverwinter Nights 1
1

Hi all,

I’ve just started playing the NWN OC again for the first time in years. Now I’m seeing ridiculously long load times between screens. For example, playing this morning I timed the transition from one of the houses in the peninsula district to the district proper at 17 minutes!! The game is totally unplayable like this. I’ve searched online and found several others have experienced the same thing. Seems to be related to the Windows 10 “upgrade.”

Has a solution been posted for this? Is anyone aware of a work around?

Thanks.

2

Hi Dave,

Well, my friend and I started a coop play through of NWN1 again, starting only this week! And we find the transitions very quick indeed (compared to NWN2). So, considering we are playing coop over the internet, then I would say it is fine.

In the few seconds I just stopped writing a response to you just now, I loaded NWN1, loaded my own Soul Shaker module, did a transition and exited the game. All took probably less than a minute from starting, transitioning and exiting game. That is an experience with a custom module in SP mode.

So, I have tested it in two extremes and it is very fast! That may mean you have a different issue.

I also use Windows 10 on the latest update.

EDIT: Are you one of those people who never reboots your computer? If so, try rebooting and test again.

Cheers, Lance.

3

Lance,

Thank you! You may be right… I only assumed it was a Windows 10 issue b/c I haven’t play NWN1 since I upgraded and I saw numerous comments online relating the issues.

I think I’m going to do a complete uninstall / reinstall this weekend. I’m barely into the game, so no big loss. And I usually shut my laptop down when I’m done with it. I’ve heard there’s a memory leak with NWN, but not sure if this is related.

I’ll keep you posted.

Thanks again and have a good weekend.

Dave

1 Like
4

Is it OC-only issue or global (read: any module)? Did you try re-installing the game?

Perhaps you’ve got a rare case of a bad sector in one of the game files -> check your FS / SMART status.

5

@NWShacker, don’t know yet… I have not tried any other mods yet. I only just started replaying the OC about 2 days ago. When I log off working today, I’ll get back on my personal PC and try one of the other mods. Unless I achieve complete success with one of the other mods, I’ll probably do the reinstall later tonight.

If it does continue, how would I go about checking my FS/SMART status as you suggest?

Thx!

6

Apologies for the lingo.

FS = file system. Run chkdsk or similar utility for checking the filesystem integrity, just in case.

And SMART can be used to predict hardware failure. Each modern drive supports it and there are free tools that can access it.

7

Seems to be a global issue. I tried SoU and HotU and experienced the same thing. Did a total uninstall and reinstall last night. No help, load times are still about the same.

8

I have the same problem. I played this through on older hardware. Now, I just wanted to try again over the holidays and the load times are ridiculous. My specs are not great with this laptop, but it is not a spec issue, there is some incombatibility or something happening. NWN version 1.69.8109. Machine: i5 3210M 6GB RAM, SSD. Windows 10 19042.1415. Did anyone find a solution or workaround for the long load times.

9

The specs of your hardware are far beyond anything what exists at the time where the game was created. If I recall correctly, we had a multithead processor and Windows XP at this time …

The message of the OP is nearly two years old. By now I do not experience any problems with Win 10 and the 1.69 version.

10

Thanks for replying. What is odd is I tried the very same install on another laptop, same version of Win10 (19042.1415), but different hardware specs. It works perfectly, loads instantly. That laptop is i5 6200U 8GB RAM, SSD. I have tried on the problem machine running it in Admin mode, running it in compatibility mode, turing off all anti-virus, etc. No dice. The loads are so slow, it is unplayable. Odd that I can find many people saying they had this problem, but not one posted solution. Again, thanks for commenting.

11

I suspect most people have moved to NWN:EE which had several engine updates and works much more consistently on Windows now compared to 1.69. Really recommended.

12

Well, I’m glad to hear that it’s not a general problem, but just the problem of one computer. Maybe you check the logs of the Windows update for something that failed? The only other thing which sprngs in mind is: Reinstall NWN. If it doesn’t help … reinstall the whole windows (… urgh, I know, that’s a hard decission)…

13

Thanks again. I’m going to have to leave this for now. I tried a variety of setting combinations, but I have not found the magical one. If I re-install Windows, I’ll throw on Win 7, as I had no problem with that on older hardware like this. Again, thanks for responding and trying, I was actually trying to have multiplayer between that laptop that worked and this one over the Christmas holidays. Noticed the issue in multiplayer, but then could reproduce it exactly in single player, so I did not add that complication, as that is not the problem. The problem is in straight single player too. Anyway, maybe the next time I get a break and my wife wants to play! Cheers and Happy New Year!

14

Another data point, upgrading from a 14 year old computer to a 10 year old computer, loads now take forever to the point of unplayable.

Difference that might apply to many here. 14 year old computer had a Discrete NVidia GPU.

My newer ten year old computer has an i5-3470 and it’s using the Intel iGPU…

I’m betting this game just doesn’t work well with old Intel iGPU.

15

Silly question but are you on a hdd and not an ssd and if the former - has the drive been defragged lately?

TR

16

14 year old computer - HDD - NWN loads levels quite fast. Q9400 CPU/ NVidia 8800GT GPU
10 year old computer - SSD - Painfully slow loading - unplayable. i5-3470 CPU/ Intel iGPU

17

This is actually no problem, works fine for me with Win X.

How did you port the game, just copying the folders? Which OS do you use? Which game (1.69 / EE)?
Did you run nwconfig.exe (again)?

If everything fails, you may reinstall things, first the game then maybe the OS. If it’s still not working after that, well … get a new machine.

18

Seems to me that the fix is obvious - if you’re still using 1.69/Diamond, upgrade to EE.

19

Integrated GPUs is anathema for EE. You need a dedicated GPU.

1 Like
20

All I know, loading times are dependent on your drive. SSD obviously is a must. I run NWN1EE on my laptop and loading time on the OC chapter1 between areas is about 3-10seconds max. Plus I installed tons of mods. I have win10 too. Well, first and most important all drivers must be installed for each device. Personally, drivereasy.com is the best software to check if everything is updated. Apart from that directx and vcredist and .NET also need to be installed to run everything smoothly. However, if your drive is not good enough, loading times will be slower. I remember the significant boost after I switch from HDD to SSD and then from regular SSD to upgraded NVMe SSD. Everything is loading just in seconds, not just NWN